20 #2
“I’m… I’m not certain I am ready for it yet. Not… not that at least, but I would like…” She swallowed thickly and let her hand fall from his face to his chest. It was solid and warm. Steady like her first impression of him had been. “I would like to kiss you,” she whispered.
Robert’s eyes widened and his breath turned shallow. Jo had imagined that he would move forward to kiss her immediately, but he was standing completely still. He nodded once, then again.
“I can control myself,” she heard him mutter as he finally leaned forward, just a little. There were still several inches between them.
Jo remembered how agonizingly good it had felt when they had first kissed in the Thistleworth garden.
Potent and delectable in a way she had never imagined possible.
She wanted that feeling again. She had been thinking of it for the past thirteen days and she wanted it again.
Now. Without thinking, she reached up to meet his mouth.
Robert’s lips were warm and soft beneath hers at first, then firm and demanding as he took control of the kiss.
She could taste the port on his lips, and it felt intoxicating.
Everything in Jo vibrated and hummed, but the feeling especially seemed to gather in the tips of her breasts and between her thighs.
She had never desired another person as much as she did him.
She clung to his jacket as he tucked her firmer against him.
“Fuck, Jo,” she thought she heard him mumble.
“I know,” Jo replied, even though she was not exactly certain what he meant.
Robert took advantage of her lips parting to speak and thrust his tongue into her mouth.
Jo eagerly met it, remembering how overwhelmingly good it had felt the last time.
It seemed to encourage Robert further; one of his hands slid down her back to cup her backside.
The hand was large and warm through the layers of her dress and petticoat and felt possessive and appreciative at the same time.
Jo could not help but sigh at the feeling and pressed a little closer against Robert to feel his warm, firm body all along her own.
It was headier and more potent than she had expected.
Something that she had not truly understood that her body wanted, needed, but that it seemed Robert instinctively did.
An appreciative sound rumbled through Robert as the kiss deepened, and Jo felt it as much as heard it. It made her nipples harden against the delicate fabric of her undergarments and sent a jolt of warmth through her body to her core.
A distant corner of Jo’s mind recognized Robert’s concern that one kiss might turn into much more than Jo was ready for, but she pushed the thought away.
He was finally kissing her, finally letting her know how much he appreciated her.
Her. The freckled, list-making Jo from Hampshire who was much more comfortable with people forty years her senior than someone her own age.
“May I?” Robert asked against her lips, then suckled her bottom lip into his mouth as he created the smallest amount of distance between their bodies and she felt his hand travel from her back to her breast. It lingered on the side before Jo nodded fervently and thrust her tongue into his mouth.
Robert chuckled, but somehow Jo knew that it was because of her eagerness, not because he was laughing at her. His hand moved to grasp her breast and squeezed it gently at first, then more firmly.
Jo shuddered as her nipples pebbled and she pressed herself more firmly against his hand.
This, her body told her. This is what I want. What I like.
Jo moaned as Robert found her nipple and squeezed it between his thumb and forefinger. She felt overheated and overly sensitive everywhere. But especially there. And lower. Between her legs.
Beatrice had walked her through the details of sleeping with a man, but Jo had never imagined that she would want a man to touch her most intimate places, despite Beatrice’s reassurances that it was pleasurable.
Now she knew that she would. That it would take very little for her to welcome Robert to do so.
“Jo,” Robert rasped against her cheek as he kissed a wet trail from her mouth to her neck.
She sighed as he found a sensitive spot beneath her ear and she arched further into him, reveling in the new and heady feeling.
His tongue played with her earlobe as Jo ran her hands through his hair and his hand continued its play on her breast. It was more primal than Jo had ever thought she could be and yet she only craved more.
“I want to do everything with you, Jo. You have to tell me when to stop,” Robert rasped.
“Not yet,” Jo managed between whimpers of delight.
“Well then,” Robert said, and with a flurry of her skirts and the tails of his jacket, he whisked her into his lap as he sat down in the closest high-backed chair.
His hands immediately roamed her body, one finding her bottom, the other her breast, while his mouth explored hers again. Jo placed her hands on his face, but the gloves were in the way. She wanted to feel his skin and the fabric of his clothes, the way he was able to with her.
“Will you help me?” she asked and held her hand out to him.
Robert quickly pulled off each of the fingers of the glove and divested her of it. He kissed each of her fingers, before placing a kiss in her palm. It was nothing more than a peck in the middle, yet it made Jo shudder. He did the same with the other.
Jo turned in his lap to better see him and placed her hands on his cheeks again. Now that she was not wearing gloves, she could tell that there was a slight prickle of stubble even if it was almost impossible to see. She caressed his cheeks with her thumbs as she leaned forward to kiss him again.
Their kisses were passionate and intense. Their tongues constantly twined in her mouth or his, while Robert’s hands roamed her body and soon Jo found the courage to let her hands travel over him as well. She ran her hand from his cheek down his throat to the solid planes of his chest.
“Move to straddle me,” Robert urged her and his strong arms helped her turn.
She was facing him completely with a leg on either side of his and this position was much better for both kissing and exploring.
“I want to see your breasts. Can I see your breasts? Is that too much?” Robert said in between kisses.
“No,” Jo panted against his lips.
She felt his hands deftly start to undo the buttons and hooks of her dress enough to pry it off her shoulders and then untied the string holding the cups of her corset to loosen them enough to pry her breasts out.
They were still clad in her thin chemise.
Another garment from Madame Laval that had arrived today.
It was in a delicate fabric, that was so thin it was almost see-through.
It could not hide the dusty pink of her nipples.
“Heavens,” Robert muttered under his breath before he leaned forward and took one of her nipples in his mouth.
It was so surprising and delightful at the same time that Jo cried out in equal parts pleasure and astonishment. Robert immediately moved to look into her eyes.
“Fuck, Jo, I am sorry. Did I take it too far?” The look of concern on his face was so reassuring and endearing to Jo, but also so far from what she wanted.
“It was wonderful, do it again,” she urged him and practically shoved her breasts into his face.
Luckily, Robert did not chuckle at her eagerness this time.
His warm, wet mouth engulfed the nipple of one breast, and she could feel his tongue tease the tight peak, as one of his hands played with the other.
Jo clung to his shoulders as she moaned and whimpered softly.
His ministrations on her breasts made her body feel heated and liquid.
Her hips moved against his of their own accord, and Jo knew her body was readying itself to accept him inside her.
A corner of Jo’s mind was still aware that she, Jo, the person, was not ready for it, but her body definitely was.
Since Robert had made no attempt to lift her skirts, there was no reason to stop though.